Nov. 16, 2003

Final Stats

Champaign, Ill. - Five days and counting until opening night for the Illinois women's basketball team. The Illini posted their second consecutive convincing exhibition victory Sunday at Assembly Hall with a 78-45 triumph of the Reebok Lady Stars in front of 1,326 fans. The Lady Stars are an All-Star team of primarily former Indiana high school and college stars.

Once again the duo of Angelina Williams and Aminata Yanni paced the way. Williams scored a game-high 23 points on 10 of 16 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Yanni added 18 points, including three three-point shots.

Tiffanie Guthrie added 15 points, five rebounds and four steals. The Illini shot 48 percent for the game and forced 23 turnovers, including 16 steals to smother the Lady Stars for a majority of the game. Illinois had 15 assists led by Maggie Acuna, who tallied six. Acuna grabbed five rebounds in 34 minutes as the starting point guard.

Rosanne Bohman paced the Lady Stars with 14 points, while former Illini Ashley Berggren had seven points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

Illinois broke open a tight game by ending the first half on a 17-7 run to take a 37-23 lead at the intermission. The Illini extended the attack with a 31-15 run to start the second half, which gave Illinois a 68-38 lead with 6:53 to play. The Illini have worked on defense and rebounding, which showed marked improvement, giving up only 45 points limiting the Lady Stars to 33 percent from the floor and forcing 23 turnovers while committing only 12 themselves. Illinois lost the rebounding category by a mere two at 39-37.

Berggren, who is teaching at a specialty school on the west side of Chicago, played in three of the eight contests for the Lady Stars in the past two weeks.

Illinois begins the regular season next Friday against the Wayne State Wildcats. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at the Assembly Hall.